Mel Stride

Melvyn John Stride (born 30 September 1961) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since October 2022.

Melvyn Stride was born in Ealing, London on 30 September 1961.

He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, and then read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union.

In 1987, Stride set up a business specialising in trade exhibitions, conferences and publishing (Venture Marketing Group) which he and his wife jointly controlled before selling it to a United States subsidiary.

Stride was selected as the prospective Conservative candidate for Central Devon in June 2006 after his name was added to the Conservative A-List in 2006.

He was the first A-Lister to be selected.

A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Devon since 2010.

At the 2010 general election, Stride was elected as MP for Central Devon with 51.5% of the vote and a majority of 9,230.

On 28 October 2011, Stride was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John Hayes.

At the 2015 general election, Stride was re-elected as MP for Central Devon with an increased vote share of 52.2% and an increased majority of 21,265.

Stride was promoted to the frontbench as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury after the election.

Stride was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.

He was appointed Comptroller of the Household following the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister.

He previously served in the May Government as Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General from 2017 to 2019 and as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from May to July 2019.

At the snap 2017 general election, Stride was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 54.1% and a decreased majority of 15,680.

Following the 2017 general election, Stride was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

He also served as Chair of the Treasury Select Committee from 2019 to 2022.

He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with an increased vote share of 55.3% and an increased majority of 17,721.

In this role in April 2019, Stride was accused by MPs of breaking the Ministerial Code over comments he had made in relation to the Loan Charge.

Stride was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council on 23 May 2019, following the resignation of Andrea Leadsom.

Stride endorsed Michael Gove to become Leader of the Conservative Party in the 2019 leadership election.

Following Boris Johnson's election as party leader and appointment as Prime Minister he was dismissed from his role as Leader of the House of Commons and replaced by Jacob Rees-Mogg.

On 23 October 2019, Stride was elected Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, replacing Nicky Morgan.

Stride supported Rishi Sunak in the July-September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, serving as his campaign chief, and lent his support to him again in the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

Upon the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister, Stride returned to the frontbench having been appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

In September 2023, Stride commented on the state pension system in the United Kingdom.

Stride claimed that the triple lock system was not sustainable in the long term.

The comments came in response to reports that the government was considering scrapping the mechanism used to uprate the state pension having seen several years of large increases.

Stride is married to Michelle and has three daughters.